forestall

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“
He told Dayton that the supposed possible "intervention" which Great Britain and France seemed to fear they would be called upon to make was exactly the action which the United States desired to forestall, and he notified Adams that he could not consent since the proposed Declaration "would be virtually a new and distinct article incorporated into the projected convention[250]."

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. transitive verb To delay, hinder, or prevent by taking precautionary measures beforehand. See Synonyms at prevent.
  2. transitive verb To deal with or think of beforehand; anticipate.
  3. transitive verb To prevent or hinder normal sales in (a market) by buying up merchandise, discouraging persons from bringing their goods to market, or encouraging an increase in prices in goods already on sale.

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Examples (50)

  • "Of more importance," and Sebell held up his hand to forestall her angry words, "just after moonset, four dragons landed right in the courtyards and lifted off again so heavily laden you could hear their wings creaking." —  Dragon Drums
  • They had come in competition with rival trapping parties, particularly one belonging to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company; and they had long stories to relate of their manoeuvres to forestall or distress each other. —  The Adventures of Captain Bonneville
  • What you are viewing with alarm may just be a backlash to the very phenomenon you're hoping to forestall, but which has been happening beneath your notice for some time Doug Loss Suppose the pharmacist's objection is not to selling birth control pills, but to selling insulin or antibiotics. —  AnalogSFF,March2006
  • To put it more dramatically, the object of a code is often to forestall or even reverse death. —  ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science
  • (And to forestall one line of BS I expect to otherwise see in comments: reducing an anticipated tax cut of X\% to Y\%, where Y = X - epsilon, does not make for a tax hike.) —  Angry Bear
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

forestall:   forestalled
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English forestallen, to waylay and rob, from forestal, highway robbery, ambush, from Old English foresteall : fore-, fore- + steall, position; see stel- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English forstallen, forestall, from for-, fore-, + stall, a fixed place, a stall (in the market).
  2. from fore- + stall, a place.
 

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/foʊrˈstɔl/
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